In hypertall buildings (those having many more than 100 floors), the problem of the limited practical length of elevator hoistways has been solved in part by means of coupling of hoistways together, and transferring an elevator cab therebetween, as disclosed in commonly owned copending U.S. application Ser. No. 08/564,754, filed on Nov. 29, 1995. In addition, the number of elevators required to move an adequate number of passengers between floors which are separated significantly (near the bottom of the building and near the top of the building) is increased by the extent to which passengers, in unloading and reloading the elevator, cause the elevator cabs to remain at rest, rather than moving passengers. This problem has been overcome to a great extent by means of offshaft loading of elevator cabs, as is disclosed in commonly owned copending U.S. patent application 08/565,606, filed Nov. 29, 1995. However, when local elevators are involved (rather than shuttles between widely diverse floors), the movement of the elevator is slowed by the number of stops, and by extent to which passengers delay the unloading and loading thereof. To improve transportation between floors near a low end of the building and floors separated a great distance from the lobby, the automatic transfer of elevator cabs between shuttles which may move the passengers hundreds of floors, and local elevators which deliver them to their destinations, has been accomplished as illustrated in the parent application hereto and in commonly owned copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/663,869, filed on Jun. 19, 1996.
As is true in the case of moving passengers great vertical distances in hypertall buildings, the movement of passengers between horizontal transportation (such as mass transit and the like) and vertical transportation (such as elevators), is aggravated by the interface between the transportation modes due to the unpredictability of passenger movement when passengers are milling around on foot.